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Press Room

May

CHIRLA members participate in a press event hosted by the Southern California Domestic Workers Coalition. CHIRLA's Household Workers program was well represented with a speaker and featured in a Cuentame video produced to impact public opinion about the California Domestic Worker Bill of Rights, AB889.

The activity was held at the LA County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO building. Flowers, giant balloons, giant postcards, and baby carriages were taken along a caravan. Participants went to visit six state senators to deliver the flowers and other items to remind them that household workers are moms too, but are often ignored as humans and treated inhumanely.

A beautiful, engaging, and inspirational activity took place today right before household workers took off in caravans to visit six state senators. The activity was in support of AB889, the CA Domestic Worker Bill of Rights.

On Wednesday, CHIRLA hosted members of the press to hear the stories of two moms who are about to be deported. Both women have US-born children and both do not have a criminal background. One of the moms, Carmen, must leave by June 17 and the other mom, Maria, must take care of a wheelchair-bound young man who suffers from daily seizures. More Photos inside.

Press Advisory: May 7, 2012

Saying Goodbye on Mother’s Day

ICE deportation quotas keep tearing families apart in spite of humane options available, especially when US-born children or sick loved ones are involved and community ties are strong.

Two women plead ICE to help them stay with their US-born children this Mother’s Day. They represent no threat to society and they are hard-working members of the community

Los Angeles – Thousands upon thousands of US-born citizens will spend this Mother’s Day facing an uncertain future and a broken family. According to a March Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) report, 46,486 parents of US-born citizens were deported from the United States during the first half of 2011. In contrast, the New York Times reports that in the decade between 1998 and 2007, nearly 100,000 such parents were deported. An estimated 4 million US-born children have a least one parent who is an unauthorized immigrant.

In a 2006 report to Congress ICE clarified that “our priority mission — and our greatest challenge — is to prevent terrorists and terrorist weapons from entering the United States” adding that “the mission of ICE is to protect America and uphold public safety by targeting the people, money and materials that support terrorist and criminal activities.” In August of 2011, ICE Director John Morton and the White House announced deportation prioritization guidelines (Prosecutorial Discretion or PD) to apply when ICE rules on a case. Thus far, ICE has complied miserably with the guidelines and out of a possible 53,000 reviews being conducted in Los Angeles alone, fewer than 220 people have received PD.

This week, Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-IL) convened a meeting of the Family Unity Advisory Group in Chicago which parallels efforts across the nation. In Los Angeles, the Family Unity Commission has been looking into specific deportation cases, meritorious of PD, but denied by ICE based on inconsistent, often erratic rationale.

WHAT: Two women threatened with immediate deportation introduce us to their children, US-born citizens, one of whom is in a wheelchair suffering epilepsy. One woman has already bought her plane tickets. The other woman must wear an ankle bracelet while she awaits her final order of deportation within 10 days. ICE has refused both of their requests for clemency.

WHO: Two women who are facing immediate deportation and their US-born children, immigration attorney Jessica Dominguez, and CHIRLA representatives.

WHY: ICE has been charged by the White House to apply Prosecutorial Discretion (PD) on deportation cases it deems “low priority”. On Mother’s Day, two families plead to stay together and ask ICE to stop the tearing apart of a loving family.

UPDATE: Late on Wednesday, ICE informed media outlets that one of the moms, Maria, could remain in the country. As to Carmen, ICE remains convinced they are acting according to the law and will see to it that she leaves the US by June 1.

April

Announced changes to flawed deportation program insufficient and deceptive

Los Angeles - The same week as the nation’s highest court hears oral arguments on the legality of SB1070, and three weeks after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a timid review of the program, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced minor modifications to the deeply flawed “Secure Communities” program (S-Comm). A DHS-sponsored Taskforce on Secure Communities released a stinging report of the program in November 2011. The modifications, which come after two years of mounting opposition to S-Comm from state and local officials, congressional representatives, advocates, and faith groups, were quickly denounced by advocates as inadequate to address the program’s failings. The following is a statement of Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles.

“ICE’s response to the strong and mounting criticism of its star deportation program, S-Comm, offers more of the same rhetoric that only ICE can accept as truth. On the ground, S-Comm has proven to be a seriously flawed dragnet that promotes racial profiling in line with the “attrition through enforcement” philosophy of the masterminds behind Arizona’s SB1070 and its copycat bills.

Far from targeting the “worst of the worst”, S-Comm catches anyone who happens to fit into ICE’s amorphously defined ‘priorities’. Deplorably, it is local and state police departments that have been relegated to the unenviable role of faux immigrant wardens undermining the trust of the community, a key element to fight crime, protect victims and witnesses, and protect the community’s overall safety.

The timid modifications in this report do absolutely nothing to change the nature of the beast. In fact, several of the responses to the recommendations are either old news or so vague as to have any real significant impact. Even though DHS and ICE appear to concede that racial profiling concerns exist, the report resists the modest suggestions made by the Task Force to monitor these concerns by states or by setting up a panel in a selected jurisdiction, e.g. Maricopa County.

In spite of claims to transparency, prioritization, and cooperation, this ICE report underscores that although the Emperor has been informed it has no clothes, obstinately refuses to wear any.”

WHAT: Press Conference to denounce dismal record of PD approvals by ICE, in large regional districts such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego. The Commission will also introduce tools crucial to a successful PD application.

Los Angeles – On Friday the Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released two reports addressing how the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) communicated the intent and requirements for participation in the wrongly-named “Secure Communities” (S-Comm) program to states and local jurisdictions and how the program is meeting its priorities. The OIG is tasked with periodic audits, inspection, and special reports prepared as part of the oversight responsibilities within DHS. The following is a statement from Angelica Salas, executive director for CHIRLA, a regional human and immigrant rights organization based in Los Angeles.

"The reports do not even begin to address the myriad, factual and legitimate concerns that communities across the country have long had about DHS-ICE's metastasized deportation dragnet, "S-Comm".

The program is turning local police departments into de facto immigration agents, often against their will as we have just seen in the case of Oscar Carrillo in Pasadena, CA.

While the OIG reviews the history of S-Comm, the current program represents a time bomb for the community: public trust in law enforcement continues to be undermined. While it may be acceptable collateral damage in the eyes of certain politicians in Arizona, Alabama and Kansas who have no qualms about relying on racial profiling, in California it is intolerable.

In Los Angeles, the concerns over S-Comm reached a very public condemnation at the August 2011 public hearing of DHS' own Task Force on S-Comm. The Task Force later issued a scathing report, vindicating many of the concerns that had been hitherto ignored by ICE. To date, DHS and the Administration have not responded publicly to the Task Force's recommendations.

We find it hard to understand the report’s conclusion that ICE did not intentionally mislead California state and local officials about whether participation in S-Comm was voluntary and whom this program was meant to target.

California was the first state in the country to sign a Memorandum of Agreement with ICE to be part of a program meant to target "threats to public safety" and the "worst of the worst". This contract contained a termination clause, which led California to believe it could work to modify S-Comm or end its participation.

In an Orwellian twist, ICE shredded the contract when challenged and carried on as before. Moreover, far from netting only serious criminals, ICE was content to ensnare street vendors, immigrant workers and even victims of domestic violence.

It is most alarming that the very real and serious problem of racial profiling gets such short shrift in these reports. Just this week, Senator Durbin announced the first Congressional hearing on racial profiling in over a decade.

The fact that S-Comm exploits the racial profiling by local police in order for ICE to reach its deportation goal of 400,000 is swept under the rug by the OIG. Anti-immigrant bills like Arizona SB1070 encourage racial profiling, while S-Comm relies and even incentivizes it.

Without a doubt, the experience on the ground cannot mask the truth: the bright line between ICE and local police needs to be restored, and this means ending, not mending S-Comm."

Los Angeles – In a seven-page report to Congress this week, the office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) acknowledged it has deported nearly 47,000 parents of US-born citizens the first half of 2011 alone. The report describes an additional 40,000 parents of at least one US-born child that ICE sought to place in deportation, exclusion, or removal proceedings – only half of these were ultimately ordered deported. It is unclear how many of these immigrants were deported during the same record period, their cases are likely still pending. The report entitled “Deportation of Parents of U.S.-Born Citizens Fiscal Year 2011” was requested by Representatives Price (GA) and Roybal-Allard (CA) and members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees.

The following is a statement from Angelica Salas, Executive Director for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), a regional human and immigrant rights organization.

“The ICE report on deporting parents of U.S.-born citizens underscores what is morally wrong with our immigration system. Through a blind, careless, and erratic approach to immigration law enforcement, the U.S. is actively alienating families and leaving tens of thousands of U.S.-born children to fend for themselves.

Massive deportation of parents of American-born citizens is a cruel, irrational, and un-American approach to patching antiquated immigration laws that require urgent updates."

"The Obama Administration has consistently expressed concern for immigrant families living and contributing in the U.S. This is becoming increasingly more difficult to believe considering the latest affront to family unity. How many more human rights abuse reports must be issued before our nation’s leaders heed the call to reach a bipartisan solution to the immigration crisis?

Under Secretary Napolitano’s helm, state-sponsored erosion of the immigrant family is swelling. Based on this week’s report to Congress, nearly one quarter of the total number of deportations a year – 450,000 – seems to be parents of American citizens. We must wonder how many of the parents of U.S.-born citizens were such a danger to society that necessitated their deportation in spite of the high financial and moral toll to generations to come.”

March

The LAPD has taken the right step to highlight alledged racial profiling against Latinos by one of its own. The immigrant community in Los Angeles has known all along that racial profiling is a common practice amongst corrupt police officers. We look forward to working alongside the LAPD to further identify and eliminate racial profiling from its force.